The Chamber of Change

She stood there again.
Fate had pulled her back to the doors
where she will be tested
again.
The fumes of heat spilled out
reaching for her feet.
She bounced back, hoping to stay away
but she knew she couldn’t.
The depths of hell were calling her.
That is where she was to be forged.
Her dreams will have to wait,
again.
This hell was important.
The chosen few got to go in.
Those who were strong enough,
survived,
and emerged with a few battle wounds.
It was not just those who went in
who had to fight,
those waiting at the doors
were soldiers chosen for this war, too.
She was one of them.
The centuries-old battle with cancer
was fueled by the desire
to live.
It demanded a mass sacrifice of
relationships, dreams, and
sometimes, hope.
It hogged on time, leaving
a gaping hole in your life.
Cancer didn’t just change
the warrior,
it changed the soldiers, too.
She stood outside the radiation chamber for
someone she had learnt
not to love too much.
She did a mass sacrifice of her own.
She let go of the times when
he trampled on her heart.
She let go of the pain of
being left unseen.
She even put on hold her dream,
her plan,
that it was time to create another life.
Cancer changed them.
As it hollowed the people
inside the chamber, it filled
the ones standing at the doorstep
with pain,
physical and mental,
for life.

***